The Awkward Age by Henry James (best novel books to read .TXT) đ
Read free book «The Awkward Age by Henry James (best novel books to read .TXT) đ» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Henry James
- Performer: -
Read book online «The Awkward Age by Henry James (best novel books to read .TXT) đ». Author - Henry James
One thing evidently beyond the rest, as a result of this vivid demonstration, disengaged itself to our old friendâs undismayed sense, but his consternation needed a minute or two to produce it. âI can absolutely assure you that Mr. Vanderbank entertains no sentiment for Mrs. Brookenhamâ!â
âThat he may not keep under by just setting his teeth and holding on? I never dreamed he does, and have nothing so alarming in store for youâ rassurez-vous bien!âas to propose that he shall be invited to sink a feeling for the mother in order to take one up for the child. Donât, please, flutter out of the whole question by a premature scare. I never supposed itâs he who wants to keep HER. Heâs not in love with herâbe comforted! But sheâs amusingâhighly amusing. I do her perfect justice. As your women go sheâs rare. If she were French sheâd be a femme dâesprit. She has invented a nuance of her own and she has done it all by herself, for Edward figures in her drawing-room only as one of those queer extinguishers of fire in the corridors of hotels. Heâs just a bucket on a peg. The men, the young and the clever ones, find it a houseâand heaven knows theyâre rightâwith intellectual elbow-room, with freedom of talk. Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box. Youâll tell me we go further in Italy, and I wonât deny it, but in Italy we have the common sense not to have little girls in the room. The young men hang about Mrs. Brook, and the clever ones ply her with the uproarious appreciation that keeps her up to the mark. Sheâs in a prodigious fixâshe must sacrifice either her daughter or what she once called to me her intellectual habits. Mr. Vanderbank, youâve seen for yourself, is of these one of the most cherished, the most confirmed. Three months agoâit couldnât be any longer kept offâNanda began definitely to âsitâ; to be there and look, by the tea-table, modestly and conveniently abstracted.â
âI beg your pardonâI donât think she looks that, Duchess,â Mr. Longdon lucidly broke in. How much she had carried him with her in spite of himself was betrayed by the very terms of his dissent. âI donât think it would strike any one that she looks âconvenient.ââ
His companion, laughing, gave a shrug. âTry her and perhaps youâll find her so!â But his objection had none the less pulled her up a little. âI donât say sheâs a hypocrite, for it would certainly be less decent for her to giggle and wink. Itâs Mrs. Brookâs theory moreover, isnât it? that she has, from five to seven at least, lowered the pitch. Doesnât she pretend that she bears in mind every moment the tiresome difference made by the presence of sweet virginal eighteen?â
âI havenât, Iâm afraid, a notion of what she pretends!â
Mr. Longdon had spoken with a curtness to which his friendâs particular manner of overlooking it only added significance. âTheyâve become,â she pursued, âsuperficial or insincere or frivolous, but at least theyâve become, with the way the dragâs put on, quite as dull as other people.â
He showed no sign of taking this up; instead of it he said abruptly: âBut if it isnât Mr. Mitchettâs own idea?â
His fellow visitor barely hesitated. âIt would be his own if he were freeâand it would be Lord Pethertonâs FOR him. I mean by his being free Nandaâs becoming definitely lost to him. Then it would be impossible for Mrs. Brook to continue to persuade him, as she does now, that by a waiting game heâll come to his chance. His chance will cease to exist, and he wants so, poor darling, to marry. Youâve really now seen my niece,â she went on. âThatâs another reason why I hold you can help me.â
âYesâIâve seen her.â
âWell, there she is.â It was as if in the pause that followed this they sat looking at little absent Aggie with a wonder that was almost equal. âThe good God has given her to me,â the Duchess said at last.
âIt seems to me then that she herself is, in her remarkable loveliness, really your help.â
âSheâll be doubly so if you give me proofs that you believe in her.â And the Duchess, appearing to consider that with this she had made herself clear and her interlocutor plastic, rose in confident majesty. âI leave it to you.â
Mr. Longdon did the same, but with more consideration now. âIs it your expectation that I shall speak to Mr. Mitchett?â
âDonât flatter yourself he wonât speak to YOU!â
Mr. Longdon made it out. âAs supposing me, you mean, an interested party?â
She clapped her gloved hands for joy. âItâs a delight to hear you practically admit that you ARE one! Mr. Mitchett will take anything from youâabove all perfect candour. It isnât every day one meets YOUR kind, and heâs a connoisseur. I leave it to youâI leave it to you.â
She spoke as if it were something she had thrust bodily into his hands and wished to hurry away from. He put his hands behind himâ straightening himself a little, half-kindled, still half-confused. âYouâre all extraordinary people!â
She gave a toss of her head that showed her as not so dazzled. âYouâre the best of us, caro mioâyou and Aggie: for Aggieâs as good as you. Mitchyâs good too, howeverâMitchyâs beautiful. You see itâs not only his money. Heâs a gentleman. So are you. There arenât so many. But we must move fast,â she added more sharply.
âWhat do you mean by fast?â
âWhat should I mean but what I say? If Nanda doesnât get a husband early in the businessââ
âWell?â said Mr. Longdon, as she appeared to pause with the weight of her idea.
âWhy she wonât get one lateâshe wonât get one at all. One, I mean, of the kind sheâll take. Sheâll have been in it over-long for THEIR taste.â
She had moved, looking off and about herâlittle Aggie always on her mindâto the flight of steps, where she again hung fire; and had really ended by producing in him the manner of keeping up with her to challenge her. âBeen in what?â
She went down a few steps while he stood with his face full of perceptions strained and scattered. âWhy in the air they themselves have infected for her!â
VLate that night, in the smoking room, when the smokersâtalkers and listeners alikeâwere about to disperse, Mr. Longdon asked Vanderbank to stay, and then it was that the young man, to whom all the evening he had not addressed a word, could make out why, a little unnaturally, he had prolonged his vigil. âIâve something particular to say to you and Iâve been waiting. I hope you donât mind. Itâs rather important.â Vanderbank expressed on the spot the liveliest desire to oblige him and, quickly lighting another cigarette, mounted again to the deep divan with which a part of the place was furnished. The smoking-room at Mertle was not unworthy of the general nobleness, and the fastidious spectator had clearly been reckoned on in the great leather-covered lounge that, raised by a step or two above the floor, applied its back to two quarters of the wall and enjoyed most immediately a view of the billiard-table. Mr. Longdon continued for a minute to roam with the air of dissimulated absence that, during the previous hour and among the other men, his companionâs eye had not lost; he pushed a ball or two about, examined the form of an ash-stand, swung his glasses almost with violence and declined either to smoke or to sit down. Vanderbank, perched aloft on the bench and awaiting developments, had a little the look of some prepossessing criminal who, in court, should have changed places with the judge. He was unlike many a man of marked good looks in that the effect of evening dress was not, with a perversity often observed in such cases, to over-emphasise his fineness. His type was rather chastened than heightened, and he sat there moreover with a primary discretion quite in the note of the deference that from the first, with his friend of the elder fashion, he had taken as imposed. He had a strong sense for shades of respect and was now careful to loll scarcely more than with an official superior. âIf you ask me,â Mr. Longdon presently continued, âwhy at this hour of the nightâafter a day at best too heterogeneousâI donât keep over till tomorrow whatever I may have to say, I can only tell you that I appeal to you now because Iâve something on my mind that I shall sleep the better for being rid of.â
There was space to circulate in front of the haut-pas, where he had still paced and still swung his glasses; but with these words he had paused, leaning against the billiard-table, to meet the interested urbanity of the answer they produced. âAre you very sure that having got rid of it you WILL sleep? Is it a pure confidence,â Vanderbank said, âthat you do me the honour to make me? Is it something terrific that requires a reply, so that I shall have to take account on my side of the rest I may deprive you of?â
âDonât take account of anythingâIâm myself a man who always takes too much. It isnât a matter about which I press you for an immediate answer. You can give me no answer probably without a good deal of thought. IâVE thought a good dealâotherwise I wouldnât speak. I only want to put something before you and leave it there.â
âI never see you,â said Vanderbank, âthat you donât put something before me.â
âThat sounds,â his friend returned, âas if I rather overloadedâwhatâs the sort of thing you fellows nowadays say?âyour intellectual board. If thereâs a congestion of dishes sweep everything without scruple away. Iâve never put before you anything like this.â
He spoke with a weight that in the great space, where it resounded a little, made an impressionâan impression marked by the momentary pause that fell between them. He partly broke the silence first by beginning to walk again, and then Vanderbank broke it as through the apprehension of their becoming perhaps too solemn. âWell, you immensely interest me and you really couldnât have chosen a better time. A secretâfor we shall make it that of course, shanât we?âat this witching hour, in this great old house, is all my visit here will have required to make the whole thing a rare remembrance. So I assure you the more you put before me the better.â
Mr. Longdon took up another ash-tray,
Comments (0)